Edge-trimming machine



June 3, 1924.- 1,495 999 H. F. GRUMAN EDGE TRIMMING MACHINE Filed March 18, I92] '2 Sheets-Sheet 1 I I I I I I I l I I I l I I June 3, 1924. 1,495,999

- H. F. GRUMAN EDGE TRIMMING MACHINE Filed'March 18, 1921 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 GDGD' Patented June 3, 1924s UNITED STATES PAT HORACE F. GRUMAN, 0F JACKSON, MICHIGAN, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO ARBEITER FEIIIIING' MACHINE 00., A CORPORATION OF MAINE.

EDGE-TRIMMING MACHINE.

Application filed March 18, 1921. Serial Ne. 453,456.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HORACE F. GRUMAN, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at. Jackson, in the county of J ackson and State of Michigan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements, in Edge-Trimming Machines, of which the following is 'a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

In the art of ornamenting cloth and other materials, such as in embroidery, tapestry, lace making, etc., and particularly in forming an edge finish, it has been the practice to form such edge finish within the body of the material and then cut away by hand, the material lying outside of this edge finish. This is a slow operation and great care is necessary in cuttingaway' the material that the threads forming the edge stitching or embroidery be not severed and that all of thematerial outside of the edge stitching be cut away.

The object of this invention is to provide suitable means for doing the work of cutting away the material outside of the embroidered or stitched edge, which means may be formed to operate automatically and rapidly without danger of injury to the embroidery and so that no portion of the material will be left to present an unsightly appearance. g

A further object is to provide means whereby an irregular outline or edge finish will be automatically followed and the material cut away accurately and closely to such outline. It is also an object of the invention to provide a machine for the purpose which is simple in construction and which may be operated by unskilled labor.

With the above and other endsin view, the invention-consists in the matters hereinafter set forth and more particularly pointed out in the appended claims, reference being had to the' accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure l is a vertical section through a machine illustrative of the invention;

'Fig. 2 is a detail view of a portion of the machine illustrative Of' the operation thereof r lops.

Fig. 8 is a'detail view of a cutter and co-operating table;

portion of a Fig. 4: is a plan view of the machine shown in Fig. 1 tion;

Fig. 5 is a front end elevation of Fig. 1; and i Fig. 6 is a operation of the machine.

In making embroidery or other decorawith parts thereof insective work applied to various fabrics, it is common practice to form a suitable edge finish which is usually 'formedby working the edge design into the body of the fabric and then cutting away the edge of the material which lies outsideof' this edge design. This edge finish maybe of irregular shape and the manner of forming the same, the materials used or the kind of stitching employed may vary, but in such instances the applied embroidery or stitching forms a thickened portion by reason of the application of the stitches to the fabric which stitches are usually close together, to provide a firm finished edge for the finished article. i

After the embroidery or other edge stitching'has been applied tothe material, it is necessary to cut away the material outside this edge finish and great care is necessary in doing this in order to prevent injury to the embroidery stitching and at the same time remove all of the body of the fabric outside of the edge finish, and this is particularly true Where this'edge is irregular detail further illustrating fthe in form, as for instance in theform ofscal- A piece of such embroidery is illustrated in the drawings, wherein the body of the material is indicated the-letter A, the edge finish or embroidery at B and the portion of the. fabric outside of the edge finish which is to be cut away is indicated at C.

The machine for cutting away theedge of the fabriccomprises a suitable casing'l to the forwardiside of which is secured'a, table 2 in any suitable manner, as by a: bracket 3, and mounted in suitable bearings 4 in the casing-is a shaft 5 upon which is secured a rotary cutter 6, said cutter being positioned opposite a slot 7 in the front wall of the casing to project therethrough. This cutter is formed with peripheral teeth 8, the side walls 9 of each of which converge outwardly to form a comparatively sharp point 10 with a forward face 11 extending transversely of the cutter and its plane of rotation, and inwardly toward the hub 9. body portion of he ut e Th s front e 1. of ac teet is the e o sub stantially ii-shape in plan view and the outer edges of this face form the two cut.- ting edges of the tooth. The inner end of this face 11 meets the inner end of the back face 12 of the next adjacent tooth in the directicn of r ta on, an h a e ie of projecting teeth are formed having forward face s which are substantially triangular 0: lie-farm nd provid c g ge which converge outwardly toward the point of the tooth. This forward face 11 of each tooth lies in a plane tangent to a circle, the. axis of whichis co-incident with the axis of the cutter shaft, that is, this face ex -end inwardly am he po nt f th tooth in a plane inclined to radial plane of the cutt The table 2 is provided with a V-shaped notch 13 to receive the cutter teeth, said notch being formed to conform to the shape of the teeth so that as the cutter rotates. the

cutting edges of its teeth will pass into close proximity with a cutting upper edge li formed on the table along'the edge of the notch13. lhe wall of the notch below its cutting edge is preferably undercut slightly, as indicated at 15, to provide clearance for the teeth. of the cutter and the body of the cutter adjacent the base of the teeth is formed, as shown at 16, with inclined sides conforming to the inclined side faces 9 of the teeth to engage the notch and prevent the cutter from being adjusted relative to the table to position where the teeth will strike the cutting edge 14 of the table and cause injury to said edge and to the cutting edges of the teeth. The table 2 may be adjustably secured to the bracket 8 by any suitable means, such as screws 17,indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 1.

To hold the fabric body A of the material to be operated upon, down upon the upper face of the table 2, a suitable presser foot 18 is provided. This foot is also formed with a lZ-notch 19 to receive the teeth of the cutter and upon the lower face of the foot along this V-notch is formed a downwardly extendingflange 20'which is preferably thin and has a, comparatively sharp lower edge.

"This loweredge of the flange 20 extends parallel with and directly above the cutting edge '14: of the table 2 and the foot is so supported above the face of the table that a very narrow space is provided between said cutting edg and lower edge of the flange, said space being just sufficient to permit the fabric edge portion C to pass therethrough. The flange however forms an abutment to prevent the embroidered and therefore thickened portion. B from passing into the path of the teeth of the cutter between the lower edge of the flange and the table.

The foot 18 is carried upon the lower end of a shaft 21 which is mounted in a socket member secured to the machine casing and within this socket is a spring 23 sleeved upon the shaft between the lower end of the bore of the socket and a head or flange 24: on the shaft. An adjusting plug 25 is secured into the upper end of the bore of the socket 522 to engage the upper end of the shaft and adjust the same longitudinally against the action of the coiled spring. A look nut 26 on the plug is provided for locking the plug in position and by means of the adjustment thus proVided,:-the foot 18 may be very accurately positioned relative to the face of the table so that the slot or space between the lower edge of the flange 20 and the cutting edge 14 of the table will be just sufficient to. allow for the thickness of the body of the material beingv operated upon to pass therethrough, the flange 'en-y gaging thickened portions, such as where embroidery or other stitching is applied thereto, to prevent such stitching from passing into the path of the cutter teeth.

The shaftfi and cutter may be rotated in any suitable manner, as by means of a pulley 27 on the shaft engaged by a flexible driving belt- 28, sai d pulley and belt being enclosed within a protecting shield 29 secured to the end of the casing 1.

In operation, the foot -18 is first adjusted so that the flange 20 thereon. will be spaced from the edge 1.42 of the table just a'suiiicient distance to allow the thickness of material to be cut away from the bodyof the fabric,-to pass therethrough; The cutter being in rapid rotation, its teeth engage the portion of fabric which projects beneath the flange 20 and across the V-notch in the table and foot and rapidly cuts it away. The opera -tor moves the body of material across the table, the same. time holding it so that the edge portion which is to be cut away will be forced beneath the flange 20 and. so'

that the thickened portion or embroidered edge finish B will engage this flange at the point of the Vuiotcli, the strip or body of 'fabric yielding suiiiciently to allow the body to move in and out maintaining the uneven or scalloped line of the edge finish in contact with the point of the flange, and thus causing the fabric outside saidedge finish to be cut away by the cutting points of the teeth of the rapidly rotating cutter, along and close to this uneven line of stitching.

All of the fabric body outside of the embroidery close up to the stitching will therefore be cut away without injury to the stitching as the flange 2O prevents the stitching from passing into the path of the cutter teeth, and at the same time, because of the thinness of said flange, permits the stitching to closely approach the cutter. EThe flange therefore protects the threads or stitching of the embroidery from being cut or injured and at the same time from an abutment, in contact with which the embroidered edge finish is maintained, throughout its entire irregular length. Because of the inclination of the forward face 11 of each tooth of the cutter to a plane pass ing through the axis of the cutter, each tooth has a shearing action as it passes the longitudinally disposed cutting edge 14 of the table, and thus the threads of the fabric are severed as by a pair of shears and all pulling or wrinkling of the fabric due to drawn threads is prevented.

The machine is very rapid in its operation as the edge of the fabric will be cut away by the rapidly rotating cutter as fast as it is drawn across the table by the operator, and an unskilled person may feed the work to the machine as it is only necessary to hold the body of material in place beneath the foot 18 and move it along, the yielding action of the body of material serving to cause the line of embroidery or edge finish to maintain its contact with the stop flange 2O regardless of the irregular outline of this edge.

Obviously changes may be made in the details of construction and arrangement of parts within the scope of the appended claims without departing from the spirit of the invention and I do not therefore limit myself to the construction shown.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim is 1. In an embroidery edge trimming ma chine, the combination of a rotary cutter operable about a horizontal axis and having a plurality of peripheral V-shaped teeth, the body of the cutter being formed with inclined sides in alignment with the sides of the teeth, and a horizontal stationary cutting blade having a V-shaped notch to receive the cutting teeth and the inclined sides of the cutter, said inclined sides of the cutter cooperating with the walls of the notch of the blade to retain said cutter and blade in definite cutting relation.

In an embroidery edge trimming machine, the combination of a rotary cutter operable about a horizontal axis and having a plurality of peripheral V-shaped teeth, each tooth being formed with a cutting edge inclined to a radial plane of the cutter, the inner portion of each cutting tooth belng in advancein the direction of rotation of the outer end portion thereof, the body of the cutter being formed with inclined sides in alignment with the sides of the teeth, and a horizontal stationary cutting blade having tain the cutter and blade in definite cutting relation.

3. In a hand feeding embroidery edge trimming machine, the combinatlon with a rotary cutter operable about .a horizontal axis,

of a horizontally disposed work supporting device arranged in cooperative relation to said cutter and having an uninterrupted work supporting surface, and a foot device disposed above the work support, said devices being respectively located in spaced parallel horizontal planes to provide a horizontal guiding channel for the body fabric during the hand feeding thereof, one of said devices being provided with an embroideryengaging flange to limit the movement of the fabric towards the cutter, said foot extending forwardly beyond the embroidered edge of the fabric. a

4. In an embroidery edge trimming machine, the combination with a rotary cutter operable about a horizontal axis, a horizontally disposed work supporting device disposed in cooperative relation to said cutter and having an uninterrupted work supporting surface, a foot device disposed above the work support, said devices being respectively located in spaced parallel horizontal planes to provide a horizontal guiding channel for the body fabric during the feeding thereof, said devices being formed with notches for receiving the teeth of the cutter, one of said devices being provided with an embroidery-engaging flange to limit the movement of the fabric towards the cutter, a spring normally urging the foot vertically in one direction, and an adjusting screw for positively shifting the foot in the opposite direction against the tension of said spring.

5. In an embroidery edge trimming machine, the combination with a frame, of a rotary cutter supported by said frame and operable about a horizontal axis, a horizontally disposed work supporting device arranged in cooperative relation to said cutter and having an uninterrupted work supporting surface, a foot device disposed above the work support, said devicesbeing respectively located in spaced parallel horizontal planes to provide a horizontal guiding channel for the body fabric during the feeding thereof, said frame having a socket disposed above the foot, a shank secured to the foot and extending upwardly into the socket, said shank having a shoulder, a coil spring disposed around the shank between the lower end of the socket and the shoulder, and an adjusting screw threaded into the upper end of the socket and engageable with the upper end of the shank to force the foot down- Wardly against the tension of said spring.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature 10 in presence of two Witnesses.

HORACE F. GRUMAN.

' Witnesses:

RAY L. HEWLETT, DAY P. VININGL 

